Context:
While collecting information for this global distance education network, SAIDE held
several interviews with organisations in Southern African countries. Impressions of each
country were generated to give some introduction to distance education and technology use
in the area. Each interview has also been written up separately as a case study.

The Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA) used to be a
division of the Ministry of Labour in Tanzania before its establishment as an autonomous
body controlled by a range of stakeholders (including government, employers, trade unions,
and educational providers). It now provides a range of services supporting the provision
of Vocational Education and Training in Tanzania.

VETA has been providing distance education programmes in Tanzania since
about 1974. These have, however, not been in operation for the last two years, as the
Authority is currently reworking its training system extensively. It expects to have
programmes offered again in 2000. These programmes will include new approaches, including
full modularization of training modules and units to allow greater flexibility to learners
as well as judicious use of new technologies. Programmes will be offered in both
face-to-face and distance education mode. Programmes, curriculum, and course materials are
developed centrally by VETA, and then provided by different training providers (of which
there are approximately 500 in Tanzania, mostly concentrated in Dar es Salaam and
Kilimanjaro).

VETAs traditional curriculum focus has been on areas such as
mechanical skills, engineering, plumbing, carpentry, and tailoring, but it will be
integrating a range of business-related and entrepreneurial skills into its new programme
focus. It will also be adding new vocational areas such as tourism, secretarial skills,
and food processing. Likewise, where the traditional aim for such programmes was to
prepare people for employment, the programmes focus will be extended to include
people who are already working (a focus which has influenced the decision to integrate
greater flexibility into educational provision).

It is not yet possible to estimate how many learners are likely to
enrol for VETAs new-look programmes in 2000. On the one hand, distance education is
still a relative novelty in these areas and established markets for such services do not
yet exist; on the other, there is massive potential for attracting students, especially
for those who are already working.